Twenty years

That is how long today marks since Leonita and I got married. Alot has happened since then. Can you believe there is someone in the world who can up with me for that long?

Our marriage took place in Tacloban City on the island of Leyte in the Philippines on May 30, 1989. We got married in a civil ceremony before a judge. No family of mine was present.

On June 17th of the same year, Leonita and I got married in a Catholic church. Father Jimmy, a close friend of Leonita's officiated the ceremony.

Four years

It was four years ago today that I started this blog. Yes its been inactive here, but I got reasons. Which are health and financial. I'm pretty down right now and that's why I just can't blog at this time.

I still have things to say about Florida, sports, politics, life in general. Pray that I get back in the mood to write about them on a more regular basis.

Beating a dead horse California style

Some elected officials must worry the since dropped idea may be resurrected. From AP-

The California Senate has voted to make it illegal to hold events that require participants to speak nglish in a move prompted by the LPGA Tour's English-only proposal.

The women's golf tour wanted last year to require its players to speak English so they could talk with each other and the media and give acceptance speeches in English.

The LPGA backed off the plan after Sen. Leland Yee and others criticized it as discriminatory.

Yee says the proposal insulted women, minorities and immigrants and might disqualify the best golfers.

The San Francisco Democrat's bill makes such policies illegal in California without a "business necessity." It was approved Thursday 21-14 without debate.

The measure now heads to the Assembly.

I think the CA legislature has weightier matters that need tending to, rather than vote on something that was dropped. Anyone over the west coast notice the state is near bankruptcy? On the other hand the LPGA spends less than a month in California every year.

The English policy which was broken by Beth Ann Baldry of Golfweek some summer, probably gained the LPGA more media attention than anything since Annika Sorenstam played at Colonial. I was in the hospital recovering from ope heart surgery when the firestorm broke.(My wife told me about it. She doesn't follow golf) I thought it was a wrongheaded idea that would cause trouble with sponsors(which it did), was challlengable in a court of law, and was only likely to damage the tour. I wrote a long post about it here, after I got discharged. None of my opinions have changed, and Carolyn Bivens or any other LPGA Commissioner would have to be insane to bring this policy up again

Will someone at ESPN please pick up the Red courtesy phone

Way to go the sports leader!

Sorry to pop your balloons up in Connecticut, but Michelle turned pro in 2005. She has played seven major championships as a professional. Wie has finished third in majors two times since 2005.

If you don't believe me, a quick glance at Wikipedia would tell you the truth. Not to mention that Wie is probably more press than any golfer than Tiger Woods in the last five years. You would hope a member of the media whose dedicated to sports would happen to know this player's history. If they don't, its a sad state of affairs up there.

As I've pointed out many times fact checking is optional when it comes to golf reporting. Just like it seems optional to ESPN to give the biggest golf tournament of 2009 so far its due.

The Knucklehead of the Day award

Today's winner is Craig Allen Aylesworth. He gets the award for the following-

A brawl between two Bithlo neighbors sent one man to jail on arson charges, deputies said. Jail records show that Florida Highway Patrol troopers arrested Craig Allen Aylesworth late Tuesday on charges of tossing a Molotov cocktail at his neighbor's trailer. A Molotov cocktail is an improvised firebomb consisting of a glass bottle filled with flammable liquid and a cloth soaked with fuel sticking out of the bottle's neck. When the cloth is ignited and the bottle is tossed, the flaming fuel spreads and burns everything it touches. Aylesworth faces five charges of arson to a vehicle, one charge of throwing a destructive device and arson of a dwelling. Reports show an argument broke out between 51-year-old Aylesworth, 51, and his neighbor on Amityville Drive in east Orange County sometime about 7 p.m. Firefighters said the wind shifted and the flames traveled back to Aylesworth's yard, burning two cars, a pickup and a travel trailer. No one was hurt.

LMAO! Talk about a unique brand of stupidity some Floridians have is proved by stories like this. Craig Allen Aylesworth is a classic Knucklehead of the Day.

He's back

For the second year in a row, Tiger won at Bay Hill in Orlando Florida by making a dramatic birdie putt on the 72nd hole. Last year Bart Bryant was the loser, this year it was Sean O'Hair.

With the win the talk of Tiger not being back to form will end. It will instead be replaced by golf journalists opining on what his chances are of winning the Masters. The first men's major championship of 2009 begins on April 9th.

Sadly another big golf tournament will get lost in the buzz of Tiger's win today and all the hype for the upcoming Masters. The LPGA Tour's Kraft Nabisco Championship begins this Thursday. A few years ago the tournament's dates were shifted so it didn't butt heads with The Players Championship any more. The TPC has since moved to May, but the Kraft still gets short changed. Golf writers and the Golf Channel rather talk endlessly about The Masters that hasn't started yet than a major championship that is under way.

Back to Tiger. He'll win at least one major championship this year. What a reckless golf prognosticator I am.

Today's edition of bad golf recordkeeping

Goes to The World Golf Hall of Fame's page on Hale Irwin-

Just as he excels on difficult golf courses, Irwin excels on difficult shots. Each of his U.S. Open victories is remembered for superb strokes with a 2-iron at vital moments. At Winged Foot, Irwin closed the door on the 72nd hole with a 2-iron to eight feet.

Thank goodness Sports Illustrated has The 'Vault' where you can look up old issues of the magazine. In 1974, Dan Jenkins told an entirely different version of Irwin's shot to the 72 hole at WInged Foot. Isn't it amazing how much that putt has shrunk through time. From twenty-five to eight. It was a great shot, but I'll believe Jenkins version told just days after it happened than the WGHOF's revisionist attempt at history.

This isn't an isolated instance either. Check how I fixed wikipedia here. I bet there are 20 or more examples out there in internet like the ones involving Dave Stockton and Hale Irwin.